From practice, it is known to support plants stems such that they do not bend excessively or even crack under a load imposed by e.g. the stem itself, or vegetables growing on the stems. With some plants carrying vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, courgettes, aubergines, etc., the stems are relatively fragile with respect to the vegetables. Without support at carefully selected locations on the stems, the plants would not be able to grow to their full extent, and such that the vegetables can be harvested in an efficient manner.
As an example, for the tomato industry, the Horticentre group (www.horticentre.co.nz) markets a “Bato” side shoot hook comprising an elongated body having opposite ends each provided with a hook member. The side shoot hook is made from a resilient deformable plastic material. The side shoot hook is used for maintaining an additional side shoot, by way of attaching the hook, to the main stem. For this purpose, the hook members are hooked around the adjacent stems to interlink the stems to provide mutual support.
A disadvantage of the known side shoot hook is that installing it is laborious. A further disadvantage is that the side shoot hook can move along the stems, rendering it less or not effective by a change of position thereof. This movement can only be prevented by secondary stems. However, such secondary stems are weak and can easily be broken. Another disadvantage of the side shoot hook is its relatively small cross-sectional area which leads to relatively high local pressure on the supported stem, with resulting local damage to the stem.